management-issues women in the workplace report

Is discrimination and lesser opportunity for women as deeply ingrained in our society as many lobby groups claim or is it a simple fact of life that men and women are different and have differing priorities in life and at work?

But while many talented women feel sidelined by the rigidity of traditional career paths, is the plethora of legislation aimed at helping and promoting women in the workplace actually having the opposite effect?

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Essential Reading

Rules of the game for corporate women

Why do so many women struggle with "being political"? They possess all the skills they need to succeed in the political arena – but all too often, no-one has taught them the rules of the game. So here's a crash course in how to play the game without becoming a man in a skirt.

Women do best in women-led companies

A new study has found that women executives in the U.S. working in women-led firms earn between 15 and 20 per cent more in total compensation than women working in other firms.

Women view 'corporate game' with disdain

Fat salaries, fast cars and "playing the corporate game" are of little or no interest to ambitious senior business women. What they look for are companies with an inclusive culture.

Women squeezed out of organisational life

The battle to break through the glass ceiling into the boardroom leaves many women negative, worn down and disillusioned that they are not being used to their full potential.

Why do women in business sell themselves short?

Even professional women with discretion over the amount they charge for their work tend to ask for less than men. But while this might suggest that they are doing themselves a disservice, new research suggests that the opposite may be true.

Survey names top U.S. companies for women

Although women account for fewer than one in 10 line managers in U.S. Fortune 500 companies, some organisations are finding innovative ways of developing and advancing their talented women - and seeing positive results.

Women less prepared to sacrifice everything to reach the top

It isn't discrimination that is stopping women getting into the boardroom, a new survey has suggested. They just aren't prepared to make the sacrifices needed to get there.

Women see balance in working for themselves

Following the publication in Britain this week of the Women and Work commission's report into gender segregation and pay, it was interesting to see a survey of Londoners which found that far more women than men view owning a business as the key to better work-life balance.

Female brain-drain "a myth"

The "hidden brain-drain" of women opting out of the U.S. workforce to spend more time with their kids is a myth, a new report has claimed. Instead, the real reason for the decline in the number of working women is the overall weakness of the labour market.

Latest on Women and the Workplace

UK glass ceiling shows few signs of shattering

The UK's glass ceiling remains as thick as ever, with women holding just a tenth of top business directorships and unlikely to achieve parity with men for at least the next 73 years.

Why women still are second class in the workplace

You'd be hard pressed today to find a boardroom that does not spin a good line on gender equality. It's just a shame words aren't matched by deeds.

It really is a man's world

Women, you're not being paranoid (or hysterical). The workplace really is a big boys' club where the men get promoted faster and the women barely get a look in.

Accountancy glass ceiling as thick as ever

A background in accountancy is one of the best launch pads there is for getting to the top in business. The problem is that it is still a profession largely closed to women at senior level.

Female entrepreneurs have it tougher than men

It's hard enough for women to climb the corporate ladder, but female entrepreneurs also suffer from a gender gap when it comes to owning and starting up their own businesses.

Why Women Mean Business Webinar

The first ever Management Issues Webinar, "Why Women Mean Business", took place on March 14th 2008. Watch and listen to the proceedings here.

Western women less confident of management success

Women in emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil feel better equipped to succeed in the global economy than do their counterparts in the West.

Goldman funds business education for third-world women

A multi-million dollar initiative by a U.S. bank is set to preach the virtues of good management and business skills to women in developing nations.

Female board members just as experienced as men

The notion that women bring less experience to the boardroom table than their male counterparts is nonsense, a new study has suggested.

Boardroom equality as far away as ever

Europe's boardrooms are still stubbornly male, with women making up fewer than a tenth of board-level positions, a disparity that could take almost 60 years to resolve.

Thumbs down for insensitive women bosses

Male managers who are perceived as unkind and insensitive are not considered to be worse bosses as a result. But woe betide a woman who displays the same behaviour.

Gender pay gap from graduation to boardroom

Graduates and board directors may be at opposite ends of the career spectrum but one thing unites them – the gender pay gap.

Female thinking shapes the workplace

Collaborative, female thinking is replacing traditional "male" work practices at all levels of corporate life as the feminisation of the workplace accelerates.

Glass labyrinth, not glass ceiling

It isn't so much a glass ceiling stopping women from making it to the top of the business world as a much more convoluted and corrosive labyrinth of obstacles.

More women on the board leads to better results

Fortune 500 companies with more women on their boards achieve significantly better financial performance than those that are male-dominated, new research has revealed.

Burden of bureaucracy leads employers to shun women

There's more evidence that the ever-increasing burden of bureaucracy is leading employers in Britain to shun women.

More women step off the career ladder

The number of high-flying British female managers stepping off the corporate treadmill or simply looking for a change of direction is at its highest level for half a decade.

Legislation making women less employable

Legislation introduced earlier this year in the UK to boost maternity rights for women has only resulted in women becoming less employable – particularly as far as small and medium-sized employers are concerned.

Gender gap to remain for generations

A child born today will have reached pensionable age before there is a balance of women and men in Britain's boardrooms, a study by the UK's Equal Opportunities Commission claims.

Why women are doomed to failure

It's hard enough for women to scale the heights in business, but even when they do they are faced with a range of "double-bind" contradictions that make it almost impossible for them to be truly successful.

Discrimination rampant in U.S. workplaces

A quarter of women in the U.S claim to have experienced discrimination at work, with almost one fifth saying they have been harassed by a fellow employee or manager.

Women should pay less tax

Women should be taxed at a lower rate than men to help more of them into work and reduce the gender pay gap, according to two American economists.

I want a life, too!

Amy doesn't yet have children, but she still wants a life. But why is all the focus on work-life balance always just about mothers? Why can't organizations realize that non-parents have work-life challenges, too?

I want a life, too!

Amy doesn't yet have children, but she still wants a life. But why is all the focus on work-life balance always just about mothers? Why can't organizations realize that non-parents have work-life challenges, too?

Mind the gap

Almost half the managers in U.S. companies are women. Yet when it comes to the most senior posts, men outnumber the women by almost six to one, while at all levels, women consistently earn less than men. But why?

Opportunities for women in Asian put UK to shame

Women in south and eastern Asian countries are more likely to break through the boardroom glass ceiling than their contemporaries in Britain, despite the UK devoting vast sums to promoting diversity and gender equality.

Women shunning British boardrooms

The number of British women in senior roles has fallen by almost 40 per cent in the past five years as they either abandon the struggle to juggle family and career or quit to start up their own businesses.

The rise of the female entrepreneur

Women around the world are increasingly likely to set up their own businesses but tend to be less optimistic about their chances and more cautious than men in the way that they go about it.

Male accountants slam female-friendly policies

Nine out of 10 male accountants believe they have been adversely affected by attempts to create a better environment for women and many say women are being promoted when they do not deserve to be.

We're all becoming managers now

The past decade has seen a huge growth in the number of people, particularly women, being appointed into relatively well-paid, managerial or semi-professional jobs.

Half of U.S. firms have no women at the top

Nearly half of the 1,000 largest U.S firms have no women in the upper echelons of their senior management, and a fifth of the rest have only a symbolic presence, damning new research has revealed.

Managers and power

Every now and then journalists get obsessed with identifying the most powerful women in business. But what does 'power' actually mean - and what about it's limitations?

Women are less ambitious - and men are to blame

Women are less ambitious and less motivated than men and have completely different priorities when it comes to the world of work – and it is all the fault of men, controversial new research has suggested.

U.S still has it all to do to close gender equality gap

The U.S may pride itself on being a nation of equals, but it lags behind much of Europe when it comes to gender equality in the workplace, politics and society, a global study has concluded.

Irish up in arms about childcare costs

The lack of affordable childcare could become an election issue in Ireland as a new poll finds overwhelming dissatisfaction with the government's response to what many people view as a growing crisis.

Rural women more likely to be entrepreneurs

Women are driving enterprise in the rural economy and are almost twice as likely to set up their own businesses as those living in towns, a new UK report has found.

Britain's glass ceiling gets thicker

With the number of women sitting on the boards of Britain's largest companies actually falling over the past year, could the very rules designed to boost boardroom diversity be partly to blame?

Women directors work longer for less

Female directors of British businesses work longer than their male counterparts but earn on average 19 per cent less - the equivalent of more than £14,000 a year.

Fifth of women overlooked, as men get cream of the coaching

Women executives often receive less coaching than their male counterparts, putting them at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to advancing their careers, a U.S study has concluded.

Women urged to help each other on to the board

Women who aggressively support each other are more likely to earn their passage on to corporate boardrooms, a U.S study has suggested.